The State of the Wellbriety Movement
January, 2006AndThe Wellbriety Movement is at a Tipping Point

The Healing Forest Model
The unhealed forest (community, left) transforms
itself into a healed forest (right) by participating
in and utilizing Wellbriety Movement activities,
programs, and learning resources. The destructive
roots of anger, guilt, shame and fear of the
unhealed forest become the four gifts of the
Sacred Hoop: Forgiving the Unforgivable, Healing,
Unity and Hope. The wounded trees become healthy
trees and the community participates in wellness
involvements, such as, sober powwows, tradition,
culture and spirituality. These are some of the
gifts of the Wellbriety Movement.

The Wellbriety Movement Tipping Point
By Don Coyhis

The Spiritual Powers Behind the Movement.

The Elders told us a long time ago that we need to
watch nature and the spiritual laws. They also said
we need to use these laws to guide us in our healing.
We cannot always trust our minds and our eyes to tell
us what is really happening. There is a period of time
when the spiritual laws are working, but at first we
cannot see it.

When we plant crops or a garden, we prepare
the soil, we plant the seeds, we water and nurture
them. Our eyes and our mind look at the work we just
did, we wait and we wait and we decide that nothing
is going on. We wait for a few more days and still
nothing is happening. Our minds and eyes might tell
us we did not get the results we thought we were going
to get. Then, one day, we see a few plants start to
appear. Then we start to see the emergence of many
new forms of life. Very soon, the little plants start
taking shape; and as we watch them grow we start to
see the signs of life in our garden.

The Tipping Point
The marble rolls to the other side when the teeter
totter goes over the tipping point

Here are some other examples:
Let’s say we have a teeter-totter with one end
up and one end down. Across the teeter-totter we have
a groove in the middle from the left to the right.
Sitting in the groove on the end of the teeter totter
that is touching the earth is a marble. We go to the
other end of the teeter-totter and push that end down
for 12 inches. This causes the end the marble is on
to rise 12 inches. Even though there was action pushing
down on the teeter-totter, the marble has not moved.
This marble could represent the Wellbriety movement.
We push it down another 12 inches. It may take months
or years to push the end down 24 inches but still nothing
happens; the marble still has not moved. If we keep
working and keep the faith, there comes a time when
just moving the teeter-totter down one inch we will
see the marble start to move. We push it down another
inch, the marble moves even more.

There is a period of time when the spiritual laws
are working and it looks like nothing is happening;
but something is happening! Finally, we see the results
of pushing down on the teeter-totter. The marble is
moving and we start to see healthy changes taking place
in our communities.

It’s
like when a woman first gets pregnant, for a
time it does not look like she is pregnant, no one
can tell, but the spiritual forces in the unseen
world are causing a new life to be created. Eventually,
we can see with our eyes and mind she is having
a baby. A new life will come forth. You can count
on it.

It has taken almost 16 years of
work without seeing much change happening––but now we are seeing
change occur. We see action in many communities to
create Wellbriety Movements. The marble represents
not only White Bison’s work, but that of other
Native American wellness organizations over the years.
NANACOA, GONA, Billy Rogers’ Wellness conferences,
AA-Al-Anon, NARA, NIYLP, UNITY, and hundreds of dedicated
grassroots people who work with and without funding
have all been pushing down on the teeter totter. We
are now seeing that the marble (wellness) is on the
move. We have reached the tipping point! Over the coming
years, we will see acceleration of the healing and
wellness movement.

The State of the Wellbriety
Movement
January, 2006

Remarks by Don
Coyhis, Founder and President of White Bison, Inc.

Don Coyhis

A Brief History of the Wellbriety Movement
Many Elders have said that the alcohol problem got
worse for Native Americans after World War ll. But
at the same time, in the late 1940’s and 1950’s
Indian people started to attend AA (Alcoholics Anonymous)
meetings and many were using the Native American
Church for their own spirituality, as well as to
recover from alcohol dependence. The Indian sobriety
movement was born. The following list highlights
the development and reach of the Wellbriety Movement.

• The sobriety movement kept growing behind
the scenes. By the late 1970’s, Indian people
began bringing their traditions into recovery meetings.

• By the late 1980’s,
NANACOA (National Association of Native American
Children of Alcoholics) was founded to tend to
the needs of the children of those who used alcohol.

• Based on the Four Laws
of Change, White Bison, Inc. was founded in 1988
to begin to see what could be done to help Native
Americans recover from alcohol dependence.

• The actual naming of the Wellbriety Movement
took place in the mid 1990’s when a Passamaquoddy
Elder talked about Wellbriety, meaning, to be both
sober and well.

• White Bison began its first
16-year growth cycle of survival, choice, influence
and mastery in 1988. Now, in 2006, White Bison
and the Wellbriety Movement are into the beginning
of the second 16-year cycle. A continuing focus or
vision of White Bison, Inc., is to facilitate 100
communities into healing by the year 2010.

• During the early years
of the Movement, the first 8 years were involved
with the building of infrastructure to get the
Movement going. This included: receiving the Four
Laws of Change from an Elder; the receiving of 100
eagle feathers which were used to build the Sacred
Hoop; the creation of the Healing Forest Model for
community change; and the development of a variety
of training resources for individuals, families and
communities. Together, these would become the foundation
of the Wellbriety Movement.

• The Medicine Wheel and
the 12 Steps, a cultural approach to the 12 Steps,
and the Natural Path to Growth development programs
for Native Americans also came into being during
these early years. They are still guiding forces
today.

• A vision of The 100 Eagle Feather Hoop of
the Nations was received in 1994 and the Hoop was built
in a sweat lodge in 1995. The Sacred Hoop became the
spiritual symbol of the Wellbriety Movement—a
recognition of the fulfillment of the prophecy describing
the seventh generation as the “Coming Together
Time.”

• The Hoop was blessed at
a Gathering of Multicultural Elders in the summer
of 1995 and was presented at a Gathering of Native
Women in Leadership in the fall of 1995.

• A Gathering of Native American
Men committed to Wellbriety took place in 1996.
The Elders at this gathering provided the Seven
Philosophies for a Native American Man, which are an important
prevention and recovery resource. All these early
events helped the Wellbriety Movement take shape.

• The Sacred Hoop Journeys
were used to inaugurate the Wellbriety Movement
in 1999. The four Hoop Journeys circled and crisscrossed
America, including a stop in southern Canada.
The Hoop Journeys took place in 1999, 2000, 2002
and 2003. Fifteen thousand people participated in
the celebrations of the Sacred Hoop.

• The Firestarters training
begun in 1999 provided a way for grassroots people
in recovery to implement the Medicine Wheel and
12 Step program in their communities. The first Firestarters
Circles were implemented in 2000. Now we estimate
that there are 800 Circles and 1500 Firestarters
around the country who have trained in the Medicine
Wheel and the 12 Steps program and other cultural
ways for Wellbriety.

• In 2004, the Native American Children of Alcoholic’s
Program Kit was introduced. The community training
for youth was developed in partnership with the National
Association of Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) and
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA).

• The Medicine Wheel and
12 Steps program was expanded to include versions
for spouses and other family members as well
as for adult children of alcoholics.

• The 7 Trainings program
answered the call from the grassroots to implement
a simultaneous prevention, treatment and recovery
effort for individuals in recovery, their families
and children. Grassroots people were trained
to facilitate one of seven different community programs
which were then implemented in schools, community
centers, social services centers and in safe houses
and half-way houses.

• Local community organizations
asked for training to help them develop community
visions for wellness. In response, the Coalitions
as Clans training was implemented.

• Publication of The
Red Road to Wellbriety: In the Native American Way in
2002 provided a comprehensive culturally appropriate
resource for Native Americans in recovery, written
by Native Americans in recovery.

• The acceptance and growth
of the Wellbriety Movement was made possible
by three Recovery Community Support Program grants.
These grants were awarded to White Bison by the Center
for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration in 1998,
2001, and 2004. We are grateful for these RCSP grants,
which made grassroots success of the early Wellbriety
Movement possible.

The Medicine Wheel teaches that change takes
place in cycles of 16 years. Each 16 year cycle
is made up of 4-year cycles of Survival, Choice,
Influence and Mastery.

The Next 16-Year Cycle
Bringing this all into 2006, where do we go from here?
During years 15 and 16 of our existence, we discussed
with our Board of Directors and our Council of Elders
what our direction should be for the next cycle. They
expressed confidence in our ability to provide the
appropriate responses to the needs of the grassroots
in Indian Country and urged us to create goals to meet
the needs told to us.

- Native American men at every age
need to take a more visible role in the Wellbriety
Movement;

- Our brothers and sisters re-entering
the community from Prison need specific assistance
for their recovery journey;

- Native American children of alcoholics
need more assistance in overcoming the traumas of
parental alcoholism and addiction;

- Meth is spreading through our Native
communities at an alarming rate. We needed to find
solutions to help our communities stop the spread
of meth addiction, and solutions to help individuals,
families, and communities recover from the effects
of the manufacture, distribution and use of methamphetamines.

Results Coming from the Wellbriety Movement
As we take stock of our grassroots communities in 2006,
the results we are seeing from the Wellbriety Movement
are these:

- In response to the approval of a
resolution by the National Congress of American Indians
(NCAI), White Bison is calling together a National
Native Task Force,
which will develop a National
Native American Vision for Wellness and Sobriety. The goal of this document
is to provide a resource for Native American communities
to use in the implementation of their own community
development, grant proposals, and local policy initiatives;

- There are thousands of Native people
who are sober and into wellness;

- A Wellbriety Movement of the Ojibwa
was launched in and among the tribes of northern
Minnesota after a Coalition as Clans training took
place in the fall of 2004;

- There was a Coalition as Clans training
of the 5 Tribes in Idaho;

- There is a strong Wellbriety Movement
in Juneau, Alaska;

- The 7 Trainings conducted in Portland,
Oregon has resulted in a strong Wellbriety Movement,
along with a great partnership with Native American
Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA)
in Portland;

- Much activity is taking place in
Portland, as well as among the nine tribes in Oregon.
During the next three years, a suicide prevention
program called No
More Fallen Feathers will start in Oregon. The goal
is to have no more suicides among the 9 tribes;

- The 7 Trainings program was conducted
in Macy, Nebraska on the Omaha Reservation. Plans
have been implemented to hold a Coalitions as Clans
training there in 2006. This should launch a Wellbriety
Movement among the tribes in Nebraska;

- In Boise, a program called Warrior
Down is taking
place. During the last 6 months, 36 men and women have
come out of prison and taken part in Warrior Down.
Not one of these individuals has returned to prison,
nor have any relapsed by using alcohol or drugs. We
expect this program will be implemented in communities
and tribes across the nations. This allows our men
and women to be at home with their families instead
of going back to prison;

- A strong Wellbriety Movement is developing
in Cherokee, North Carolina. A recent AA conference
had over 900 participants. The Wellbriety Movement
is not only getting stronger, but it is accelerating;

- September is National Native American
Wellbriety Month. In September of 2005, more than
50 communities celebrated recovery by holding public
events;

- This use of our culture is proving
to really, REALLY work for us. There are many 7 Trainings
scheduled in many communities this next year. We
have one 7 Trainings team to do this training. We
are developing the 2nd training team because of the
request from communities. The Wellbriety Movement
must keep up with the rapid expansion;

- White Bison pays attention to
the grassroots when it speaks. We are developing
a Fathers of Tradition program, a Tots for Tradition
program, as well as a training called “Talking our Communities Back”;

- We will hold two annual National
Wellbriety conferences per year––one
in April and another in October;

- We will be developing online training
courses for some or our products. This will be done
as a give-away so more of our communities can start
their healing process;

- We will be working with a few Tribal
Colleges to develop a two-year curriculum to assist
in the development of using culture for our Native
counselors;

- A new book called Alcohol
Problems in Native America: The Untold Story of
Resistance and Recovery—The
Truth About the Lie is ready for publication.

- This will be followed by a Native
Leadership book to help our Native leaders lead our
tribes and urban communities to wellness;

- We will be starting various efforts
all around “Taking
a Stand.” This means we will no longer sit
and watch injustices but will do something about
them. For example, the Smithsonian National Museum
of the American Indian is selling alcohol inside
the museum. We will launch a national media campaign
asking them to stop selling alcohol and to take a
stand on alcohol;

- We want to change the way we talk
about our people and our communities. Instead of
only looking at what is wrong with us, we will start
seeing and measuring what is right with us. We will
start by identifying, evaluating and measuring our
strengths:

> We will survey how many of
us are sober and begin to implement wellness
practices;

> By the year 2010, we will
see tribes and urban centers actually measuring
how many of us are into wellness and sobriety.
We expect to see tribes that are about 50% sober;

> We will see many tribes and
communities having visions of wellness and sobriety;

> We will hear common talk
about how we have sober leadership;

> We will see leadership institutes
and the involvement of our Tribal Colleges
to offer training on various topics of culturally-based
wellness methodologies.

We
Are in Healing!
We must mobilize all our resources, culture knowledge,
programs, skills, insights, ceremony and prayers,
working together across tribes and across urban and
rural communities in ways we have never done before.
We must use the technology and all resources at our
disposal. We must create our own cultural logic models,
describe cultural competencies, and certify culturally
based promising practices to keep the movement rolling.
We must talk to our children and make them feel part
of this change. We are at a point where the Wellbriety
Movement is spreading and we will now notice with
our eyes and our minds that we
are in Healing.